


Laces

by Dream_Wreaver



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Drabbles, F/M, I'm Sorry, accidental reveal, codewords, internet jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 01:20:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13693908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Wreaver/pseuds/Dream_Wreaver
Summary: In the end, they were outed by a pair of laces





	Laces

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize right here, right now... I don't know why I wrote this either

The school’s curriculum was an oddity to Adrien. Maybe it was the fourteen prior years of homeschooling, plus regimented activities. But some of the information he was learning about simply didn’t seem relevant to the real world. Like code words, why were they learning about codewords? Yes, he understood that during times of war they or other covert operations they were incredibly crucial things to have, but why did school children need to be learning about them?

But the more he thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make. And he wondered if perhaps he could use the code phrase for himself. He had wanted to learn his lady’s identity for so long, but respected her decision not to tell him. That, however, didn’t prevent him from having his suspicions, and he wanted to find a way to confirm them without seeming like it was prying.

Chat Noir landed on the assigned roof where he and Ladybug always met to begin patrol. The spotted heroine and girl of his dreams was already there and waiting. The idea had been stewing in his brain for some time, and while he wanted to bring it up immediately, the timing just didn’t seem right.

“And a good evening to you chaton,” Ladybug smiled, and he felt like he’d been blessed.

“Bonsoir m’Lady,” he bowed gallantly, “Ready to start the evening?”

“Always,” she gave him a cocky smile, jutting out a hip and placing a hand on it, “Wanna race?”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Chat grinned, settling down on his haunches. “On the count of three?”

“Un, deux,” they paused, tense, waiting, ready, “Trois!”

And they leapt, bounding over rooftops and streets, swinging and pouncing and all the while keeping an eye out for any trouble akuma related or not. When their cursory sweep of the city had been completed they settled down on another rooftop to take a quick breather.

“I think I won that round Chaton,” Ladybug laughed, “Sure you’re not losing your edge?”

“Not at all my lady,” Chat parried, “This cat is as fit as a fiddle,”

“So we’re moving on from bad puns to tired cliches, alright, I’ve been wanting a change of pace.”

“Speaking of cliches,” Chat blessed his rather poor luck for that easy transition. “What do you think of code words?”

“I think they can be quite useful, why?” Ladybug replied.

“I’ve been doing some thinking,” Chat began, suddenly nervous. There was a good chance she would say no, but he hoped he could present his case in a way that would allow her to agree without much risk to herself, “And I know you said we should keep our identities a secret.”

“I did, you haven’t been doing any spying on me, have you my curious kitten?” her eyes narrowed at him though she kept her tone light, uncertain of whether or not she would be justified in being angry just yet.

“No no!” Chat quickly held up his hands, trying to placate her, his lady’s wrath was  _ not _ something to be toyed with, “I’ve been respecting your decision. It hasn’t stopped me from wondering though, curiosity and cats and all that.”

“And what does this have to do with codewords?” Ladybug asked him.

“Well, I was thinking… maybe we should have a codeword, just in case?”

Ladybug raised an unimpressed eyebrow but didn’t immediately object, meaning he still had a chance for now.

“Hear me out, I promise that I haven’t gone looking for you. I swear, cat’s honor. However, on the off chance that one of us was to see something we shouldn’t… or we have our suspicions-”

“If we have our suspicions we should keep them to ourselves,” Ladybug told him, “Chat, you already know why we can’t share. It isn’t because I don’t trust you… but until Hawkmoth is defeated for good, we can’t. We had enough risk bringing out Rena, we don’t know how much he knows and the thought that our identities could get back to him… it would put not only us but everyone around us in danger.”

“I know,” Chat felt himself deflate a little but tried to make the best of it, “But I think it’s a good idea regardless. A way to let us know in an emergency… It can even be something very specific, a way to verify. A way to tell friend from foe, like with what happened with Copycat.”

She sighed, “You’re really not going to let this drop, are you?”

“It can be something super specific, something only the two of us could come up with,” Chat promised.

“Like what?”

“Um…” he honestly hadn’t expected to get this far and now was scrambling for a phrase. He remembered the few times he’d gone on a blogging website, more specifically the english speaking side and recalled a phrase a few people had come up with to identify when they found someone else from said website, “I’ve got it! If we suspect we can say, ‘I like your shoelaces,’ and if it really is us we have to respond, no matter what, ‘Thanks, I stole them from the president’. Sound good?”

“Sounds a bit too random a response,” Ladybug quipped, “But that is the type of out of left field response I can’t expect an imposter to come up with,” she sighed and held out her hand, “Alright, it’s a deal.”

MLB

After that Adrien decided to test his codeword a few times, just as an experiment. If he found that anyone else responded with the phrase and then confronted Ladybug about it later they could alter it as necessary. But it wouldn’t do to have a faulty codeword.

He tried it out on models, on random people in the streets, he tried it out a few times even as Chat Noir. All the people, regardless of whether they were wearing something with laces or not, regardless of who he as playing the part of, never said the phrase. Good, so far. At least he had a control group which added credence to the fact that this was a safe bet.

Or… it was until Hawkmoth decided to start picking his victims closer to the end of day. Like Adrien didn’t have enough on his plate. Now instead of doing homework he got to stay up late fighting evil. Well, it wasn’t all bad, he still got to see Ladybug after all. A little sleep deprivation was worth it for that in his eyes.

But he came into school one morning absolutely exhausted out of his mind. These nighttime akumas had kept up for over a week now. And Adrien was getting a little sick of it. He knew without a doubt that if this continued his grades would continue to slip, and if his father ever got an inkling of Adrien starting to decline in his expectations he would be out of school before the situation could be remedied. In a catatonic, almost zombie-like state Adrien sat down at his desk. Nino was already there, and shot a grimace at his friend.

“Dude, you look like death warmed over, what  _ happened _ ?” Nino asked.

“Nothing much Nino,” Adrien fobbed off, “My schedule’s just been a little more demanding than usual lately,” Not a lie, but definitely not the truth either, “Sorry.”

“No it’s fine, I get it.”

“Anything new happened while I’ve been out of the picture?”

“Got some sweet new kicks, wanna see?” Nino asked.

Adrien nodded and the other boy plopped his feet up on the desk. Belatedly Adrien noticed Marinette stumbling into the classroom in much the same manner as he had. She looked about ready to drop, but as soon as she was safely in her seat Adrien turned his attention back to Nino. they were Chat Noir themed sneakers. Black all over, with neon green laces. But as Adrien looked closer he noticed,

“Hey,” he drawled, the laces had little black paw prints on them. And without even thinking, too tired to consider the potential ramifications of his words, he said, “I like your shoelaces.”

Before Nino could even respond another voice chimed in, “Thanks, I stole them from the president.”

Adrien froze, the phrase, the exact phrase he had agreed he and Ladybug would say to let each other know. The same answer that a rather large sample of the population hadn’t come up with. In stilted motions Adrien turned around and looked behind him. Marinette was still bleary-eyed, and not at all like the answer had been something she’d said intentionally. It was more like an ingrained phrase, one she’d agreed to say, one that a certain Lady had said was too out of left field for an imposter to come up with. Alya was looking at the other girl with confusion, so it wasn’t some sort of inside joke the two might have been sharing. And then it all began to click, the hairstyle and color, the eyes, the small dusting of freckles he saw across the bridge of her face, the sleep deprivation. Marinette was Ladybug.

And the first thing Adrien did when his faculties were once again working was scream.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? Did you hate it? Leave a comment and let me know. Until next time


End file.
